Efficient layout in an extremely narrow space?

I’m a newish wood worker, and a new member looking for some help/advice on laying out my wood working shop in the space I have available. I will be using my garage, which is a 3 car (but 2 door) space shaped like a backwards capital “L”. In one bay of the garage I have lawn equipment, wife’s crap (er..stuff) storage shelves, kids bikes, etc. I am considering building a false wall between the two halves of the garage to isolate the wood working space (my garage see lots of young child traffic coming in and out of the house and I’d like to keep them away from the tools) This leaves me the other (longer side) of the garage to dedicate to a shop. The space is roughly 31.5’ long and a miserable 9’4” wide with a 8’ garage door on one end.

I have tried several different layout ideas, most of them grouping cutting/shaping tools and wood stock close to the garage door with finishing area/tools at the back end but can’t seem to make the extremely narrow space work well. I’m having the most trouble with the cutting/shapping and stock storage part of it. Fitting a full complement of tools (table saw, band saw, router, planer, jointer and dust collection) along with wood stock storage into roughly have of the space (16’ x 9’4”) is not working out. Anyone have some ideas or advice? I need help!

Plan B is move everything else out of the garage and claim the entire space in all its glory as my wood shop! Unfortunately “upper management” has not yet embraced that plan.

Thanks for the help,

-- 5kippy

10 replies so far

Complain about the space all you want, I envy you. My shop is about the same width and only 11’6” long (yes 110 sq ft total). Mobile bases and adjusting heights so that tools or storage nest together is very useful. Also consider using overhead space, if you have any. You might be able to figure out how to store some of the stock in a rack mounted on the ceiling to help get it off the floor.

Good luck with your organization.

-- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. Thomas Jefferson

+1 to using a shop planner… Like the idea of wall to seperate the shop, wonder if it would be appropriate/beneficial to build half walls which are equal to the height of equipment around them i.e. enabling some use as table extensions and allowing sheet goods to be maneuvered over the walls etc. Not sure the kids will respect that they do not enter shop area without your presence but suppose full walls would prevent sawdust hitting up the other areas of the shop so… Decisions decisions :P Good luck, welcome to LJs and enjoy the shop…

My shop is 12 by 24. I have my ts in the center pushed up aginst the wall with the rail extension against the wall. Most of the time this is fine. Sometimes i have to pull it out a little. I have enough room to push a piece of ply thru lengthwise. I would think thats what you shoukd do. Put the infeed side about 10 feet from garage door. My workbench is also my outfeed table. Still working on other layout stuff but thats my basic.

Save room for your dust collector near the door so it will be easy to empty when the time comes.

I am working out of a one car garage with all of the tools you described. the band saw, planer and drill press are on wheels so I can move them about as needed. A dedicated miter saw station has been a great addition for me.

In my last house, I moved in December, I had a workshop that was 25’ x 10’ with roll up door. I made some wall hung benches along the three walls. On these benches I mounted my equipment. I had my table saw on wheels and it was the only tool I moved. On these benches I had a Drill press, drum sander, 6” belt sander, miter saw,router mounted in the bench, bench top 6” jointer and a bench top planer. I also had a floor mounted band saw. I put the dust collector outside the room in the garage and wood storage was also outside the workshop. Not ideal but it worked for me for six years.

My space is roughly 12×21. What I ended up doing is, getting a TS that rolls around and positioning it near the door. I rotate it so it’s facing out for rips, and spin it 90 for crosscuts. I use a workmate with a support board clamped in it for supporting large stock. My DC is central on one wall and I move the hose between machines. Everything else is jammed up against one wall or another. My DP and BS are stationary, but my router table is on wheels. I tried planning my space, but ended up just working out there until I got a feel for where I wanted everything. Good luck.

I have a 10’x20’ space that I make work. Would love for it to be bigger, but you gotta work with what you got. TS in the middle, and everything else around the edges. I find that the jointer & planer are really the only machines I ever need to roll around to make room to feed long stock.